Charter Communications would become the new cable television provider in Louisville and Southern Indiana, taking over Time Warner Cable customers in a deal intended to ease regulators’ concerns over Comcast’s proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable.

And by selling those subscribers to a company that has been openly critical of the proposed merger, Charter Communications, Comcast removed another obstacle to the deal.

Comcast said it would sell 1.4 million subscribers outright to Charter Communications and spin off 3.5 million subscribers into a separate company co-owned by Comcast and Charter.

The complicated transaction, valued at about $20 billion, is contingent on a successful regulatory review of Comcast's merger with Time Warner Cable.

Brian Roberts, Comcast's CEO, told investors on a conference call that service areas in clusters help to save costs and make the company's offerings more competitive. A combined Comcast-Time Warner Cable would service roughly 30 million video customers and 28 million Internet subscribers.

The reshuffling amounts to a hefty consolation prize for Charter, which lost the bidding war for Time Warner Cable when the Comcast deal was announced in February.

Charter CEO Tom Rutledge told investors in a conference call Monday the transaction will create a "highly efficient footprint for us in the Midwest and Southeast."

Charter had previously urged Time Warner shareholders to reject the merger.

Consumer groups criticized the latest dealings.

"The Charter deal is like a bribe," said Mark Cooper, a researcher for the Consumer Federation of America. "Now that Charter got what it wants, there's no more criticism."

Matt Wood, policy director for media consumer advocacy group, Free Press, said the deal does nothing to address the problem that cable companies intentionally don't compete in each other's service areas. That leads to higher prices and worse customer service, he argued.

"It doesn't do enough to address the harms of having even fewer companies," he said.

The Associated Press and The Washington Post contributed to this report.